Naomi Russell on being a Select Committee's independent expert

Q: What is your role as member of the Health and Social Care Select Committee's independent expert group and what does it entail?

A: I am a specialist panel member for the Health and Social Care Select Committee’s expert panel. Specialist panel members are recruited at the beginning of each project and work alongside the Chair, Professor Dame Jane Dacre, the Expert Panel secretariat, and the five current core members of the panel. The project I have been recruited to work on is on transitions from child to adult health and social care services.

The Panel's aim is to gather evidence on the extent to which current guidelines and quality standards for the transition process between child and adult health and social care services are being met and identify any gaps that exist in this period. The panel undertakes research and analysis, including, but not limited to, reviewing written evidence and published data, to judge the Government's progress against its own key objectives and commitments, and the sector’s compliance with the relevant guidelines, legislation and guidance.

The panel also requested written submissions of evidence from key stakeholders and held two online round tables – one with people with lived experience and one with practitioners – to gather a range of evidence from across England about the current state of transitions services in health and social care.

Q: How did you get involved in the expert group?

A: An email was circulated in the University about the opportunity to apply for a role as a specialist panel member.

The committee was looking for candidates who can demonstrate:

• Significant clinical or professional experience of the transition of health and social care between children and adult services, including a broad understanding of the key issues facing those falling into this group.
• Ability to provide objective, evidence-based evaluation from appropriately chosen methodologies.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.

‘The Panel is actively looking to recruit individuals with a diverse range of hands-on clinical, professional, policy or academic expertise. It is important that the range of views and experiences of patients and service users can be translated through the successful candidates.’

I am a social worker and worked as a manager at various levels in a Local Authority with responsibility for transitions services. Since moving to IMPACT at the University of Birmingham, I have supported several projects around the UK looking at improving transitions services. I applied for the post, was invited to interview, and was offered the opportunity.

Q: How has your role in the group changed your understanding of the relationship between research and policymaking?

A: I’m not sure it has changed my understanding of the relationship between research and policymaking, but I have learnt a lot about parliamentary processes. The brief of the panel is to look at government pledges that have been made around transitions (this includes things like NICE standards) and evaluate how far these are being met. The panel gathers evidence and summarises this for the committee. This is the stage we are now at. The next stage will be to present the evidence to the committee. 

Q: What are your top tips for getting involved in policy engagement as a researcher?

A: I wouldn’t say I am an expert on this as it’s my first foray into policy engagement at a national level. I would just say that if you see an opportunity to get involved in something you have some expertise in, go for it. You get to meet people interested in that topic from all over England, along with the core members of the panel, and it has been an enjoyable and interesting experience.

Q: What are some of the impacts that your role has had on policy/ the conversation on health and social care?

A: This is still to be seen and will emerge once the findings have been presented to the HSC committee. Some of the things I offer to panel discussions are to I represent the views of young people and families I have worked with and I contribute to discussions about social care transitions. I have helped to facilitate the round tables (using my experience and expertise). I also have experience of synthesising evidence, which was invaluable in bringing the different strands of evidence together for the final report.